FORMER France defender Lilian Thuram has called on the French Football Federation to ban current captain Patrice Evra from future international action.

The Manchester United full-back led the team in their dismal World Cup campaign in South Africa this summer and was central to the squad’s refusal to train the day after Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka’s exclusion for a war of words with coach Raymond Domenech.

After Evra confronted fitness coach Robert Duverne, who then stormed out of the training session and hurled his accreditation to one side, the squad retired to the team bus and left Domenech to read a statement to the press.

Speaking after a meeting of the FFF’s general council, Thuram said: “I demanded that the players be harshly punished and that Evra never returns to the France squad.

“When you are captain of the France team, you must have a responsibility to the jersey and the people. When the players shut themselves in the bus, and the fact that it was the coach who read the statement, that showed that the coach was no longer respected.

“In any group there are leaders and people who follow, and others who do not agree and do not dare say no.”

Thuram was part of the teams which won the 1998 World Cup and the European Championship two years later.